Battle of Wilkomierz 1435
The battle of Wilkomierz, fought on 1 September 1435, is the last great field battle fought by the Teutonic Order in the Baltic theatre. The battle pitted the Order’s field army, under the Grand Master Paul von Rusdorf, against a Polish-Lithuanian army under the Polish Grand Hetman, Janusz of Warsaw. The result was a striking Order victory: the Polish Grand Hetman was captured, the Polish-Lithuanian army was routed, and the Order’s military reputation in the Baltic was, briefly, restored.
The battle of Wilkomierz is, an instructive case study in the Order’s mid-fifteenth century military practice. It illustrates, on the one hand, the Order’s continued capacity to fight a major field engagement at a high level of competence. It illustrates, on the other, the Order’s strategic limits: the Order was, by 1435, no longer able to translate a major field victory into a coherent strategic plan.
The Polish-Teutonic War of 1431–1435
The war was the consequence of a long-running dispute between the Order and the Polish-Lithuanian union over the status of the borderlands between the Order’s Prussian territory and the Polish crown lands. The dispute had been simmering since the end of the war of 1409–1411, and it was reignited, in 1431, by a Polish-Lithuanian invasion of the Order’s territory. The war was, in significant part, a war of raids and counter-raids conducted by both sides across the contested borderlands.
The war reached its climax in the summer of 1435, when the Polish-Lithuanian army invaded the Order’s territory in force. The Order’s response was to concentrate its field army at the border and to march towards the Polish-Lithuanian lines. The two armies met, on 1 September 1435, near the village of Wilkomierz — Polish Wilkomierz, German Wilkomir — modern Ukmerge in Lithuania, on the border between the Order’s Prussian territory and the Lithuanian grand duchy.
The Disposition of the Forces
The Polish-Lithuanian army was, by the standards of the age, a substantial force. The Polish contingent comprised the feudal levies of the Polish crown lands and a substantial number of mercenaries; the Lithuanian contingent comprised the feudal levies of the Lithuanian grand duchy. Contemporary estimates suggest perhaps 8,000 to 12,000 men.
The Order’s field army was, by contrast, substantially smaller. The Order’s principal strength was the knight-brothers, of whom perhaps 100 to 150 took the field. The Order’s army was supported by secular knights, mercenaries, and vassals. The total strength has been variously estimated at 4,000 to 6,000 men.
The Polish-Lithuanian army was, in the tactical sense, a mixed force: the Polish contingent was, on the whole, a heavy cavalry force of considerable quality, while the Lithuanian contingent was a lighter cavalry force of considerable mobility. The Order’s army, by contrast, was, on the whole, a homogeneous force of considerable quality, with the knight-brothers being the most highly-trained heavy cavalry in northern Europe.
The Course of the Battle
The battle opened, on the morning of 1 September, with a series of skirmishes between the advanced guards. The Polish-Lithuanian army, having the larger force, was formed up in a defensive position; the Order’s army was formed up in a series of deep columns, with the knight-brothers in the vanguard.
The first major engagement was a Polish attack on the Order’s right flank, which was repulsed with heavy loss. The Order’s commanders, having been informed by their scouts that the Polish attack was unsupported, decided to commit the main body to a major assault on the Polish-Lithuanian line. The assault was, in the early stages, successful: the Order’s knight-brothers broke through the Polish-Lithuanian centre and engaged the Polish left.
The turning point came in the early afternoon, when the Order’s assault reached the Polish-Lithuanian command. The Polish Grand Hetman, Janusz of Warsaw, was captured by a charge of the Order’s knight-brothers; the Polish-Lithuanian army, deprived of its commander, began to lose cohesion; and the Lithuanian contingent withdrew from the field. The Order’s army, having broken the Polish-Lithuanian line, began a general pursuit. The final stage was a general rout: a large fraction of the Polish-Lithuanian army was killed, wounded or captured.
The Casualties and Consequences
The casualties were very heavy on the Polish-Lithuanian side. Of the Polish-Lithuanian army, perhaps 3,000 to 4,000 men were killed, wounded or captured. The Polish-Lithuanian losses included the Polish Grand Hetman, a substantial number of senior Polish officers, and a large fraction of the Polish feudal levy. The Order’s casualties, by contrast, were very light: perhaps 200 to 300 men killed, wounded or captured.
The battle of Wilkomierz was, in the short term, a striking Order victory. The Order’s chancery used the victory to great effect in the diplomatic negotiations that followed, and the Order’s prestige in the German lands was substantially improved.
The battle of Wilkomierz was, however, also a strategic failure. The Order was, in 1435, no longer able to translate a major field victory into a coherent strategic plan. The Polish-Lithuanian army, although defeated in the field, was not destroyed; the Polish-Lithuanian coalition, although weakened, was not broken; and the Order’s strategic position in the Baltic, although improved, was not fundamentally altered. The war was concluded, in December 1435, by the Peace of Brześć Kujawski, by which the Order recognised the Polish-Lithuanian possession of the contested borderlands and the Polish crown’s overlordship of the eastern Prussian territories.
Sources
- Boockmann, Hartmut. Der Deutsche Orden: Zwölf Kapitel aus seiner Geschichte. Munich: Beck, 1981.
- Ekdahl, Sven. Die Schlacht bei Tannenberg 1410. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2010.
- Ekdahl, Sven. Die “Banderia Prutenorum” des Jan Długosz. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976.
Related Reading
For the broader context of the Order’s major battles, see the cluster on major battles and the pillar on military campaigns. For the Order’s long fifteenth-century decline, see the Thirteen Years’ War and the secularisation of 1525. For the Order’s military organisation in this period, see the cluster on military organisation.